SanDisk Extreme Portable SSDs Serve Up A Big Speed Boost
Today Western Digital announced two new additions to its lineup of SanDisk portable SSDs: the SanDisk Extreme and SanDisk Extreme Pro. The biggest improvement here seems to be speed, with Western Digital saying that these new drives offer "nearly" double the speed of drives from the previous generation. They also come in large capacities as well, so if you're regularly working with large videos or other projects that take up a ton of space, they might be a good call (if you can afford the price tag that comes along with those higher capacities, that is).
Western Digital says that these are all NVMe drives that are protected with password protection and 256-bit AES hardware encryption. With the standard SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD – as it's officially called – we can expect up to 1050MB/s read speeds and up to 1000MB/s write speeds. Apparently, these drives can survive a two-meter drop and come with IP55 water and dust resistance as well.
The drive is protected by a silicone shell, which is a step down from the silicone shell and aluminum chassis combo we find in the Pro model. Indeed, if you can afford it, it seems the SanDisk Extreme Pro might be the drive to go with here, as it boasts up to 2000MB/s read and 2000MB/s write speeds – a significant boost in performance over its counterpart.
Between the difference in read and write speeds and the aluminum chassis, these drives have some similarities. The SanDisk Extreme Pro still has has an IP55 water and dust resistance rating and offers the same kind of drop protection. Both drives are compatible with Mac and Windows and can even be used with USB-C smartphones, which is a nice touch.
Of course, there's a fairly big difference in price between the two drives as well. The standard SanDisk Extreme is available today in 500GB ($119.99) and 1TB ($199.99) models, with a 2TB model shipping out before the end of the year. For the moment, the only SanDisk Extreme Pro model available is a 2TB one, but that'll set you back a whopping $499.99. We'll see a 1TB version of the SanDisk Extreme Pro ship later this year as well, but so far, there's no word on pricing for the unreleased models.